Fastening for lacing-cords



(No Model.)

G. M. 'SAWYER.

FASTENING FOR LAGING GORDS. r No. 380,523. Patented Apr. 3, 1888.

INVENTOR:

BY Hum 5 ATTORNEYS.

4 PETERS PivQlQ-Lflhogmphw. Washinglan. DLc.

llmran STATES PATENT @rrrcn.

GEORGE M. SAWYER, OF GLENS FALLS, NEW YORK.

FASTENiNG FOR LACINGCORDS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 380,523, dated April 3, 1888.

Application filed November 8, 1887. Serial No. 254,597. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, GEORGE M. SAWYER, of Glens Falls, in the county of lVarren and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Fastenings forLacing- Cords, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention is more particularly designed to be applied to lace boots or shoes, and is intended to facilitate the following use of the lacing-cord: To close the opening up the front of the boot or shoe to which the lacing is applied, said lacing or lacing-cord is first started at or near the bottom of the opening, leaving onecnd of itsccure below. It is then threaded forward and backward through the usual eyelets and buttonlike hooks till it reaches the upper portion of the opening, when its free end is secured to prevent accidental unlacing by engaging it with a fastening at top. This mode of lacing a boot or shoe and of securing the cord against unlacing admits of the work being done by one hand, which will be an advantage to the lame, stout, and aged; but to make it effective itis very important that both a simple and efficient fastening should be provided for the free end of the lacingcord. To produce such is the object of my invention.

The device constituting my invention essentially differs from other lacing-cord fasteners in which a post having inelastic stud-like arms at top iuclosing a circular notch to form a bight for the free end of the lacing-cord is used. In my improved device, on the contrary, the fastener has a post around which the free end of the lacing-cord is first given a turn or two, and a split spring jaw-like head capable of receiving the remaining or outer part of the freeend portion of the lacing-cord down within it and operating to close upon and securely hold the cord, substantially as hereinafter described, and pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure 1 represents a View in perspective of a lace boot or shoe having my invention applied; and Figs. 2 and 3 are mainlysectional views in planes at right angles to each other, upon a larger scale, of my improved lacingcord fastener detached.

The lacing-cord fastener here shown may either be made of a single piece of metal or of several pieces, as desired. It consists'in part of a small flange or plate,b,having a hollow rivet projection, c, on its under or inner side,which, after having been passed through the leather of the lace boot or shoe A on one side of the opening d therein near its top, is clinched on the inner side of the leather to hold the fastener in place, as common in other devices, including the button-shaped hooks used on lace boots or shoes. Mounted on or projecting from the opposite or outer surface of this flange 1;, at a slight distance from or to one side of the rivet c, is a cylindrical or other suitably shaped post, 6, of alength sufficient to receive one or two turns of the free end of the lacingcord B around it. This post is constructed or fitted at its top orouterend with asplit spring head or clamp composed of two opposite side springarms, ff, terminating above in two opening and closingjaws adapted to receive the free end of the cord 13 down'within them and afterward to close over or upon and grip the cord between them.

The boot or shoe is laced to close the opening (1, as hereinhefore described, beginning at the bottom of said opening and proceeding up to near the top thereof, after which the free end portion of the lacing-cord is given a turn or two around the post 6 of the fastener and then the remaining portion of said free end of the cord passed down between the spring-j aws or opening and closing split spring-headff, which is shaped to receive and grip the cord within it and to close upon or over the same.

A fastener constructed as described is both simple and secure as regards its hold upon the cord to prevent it from being accidentally unlaced, and it admits of a very rapid engagement of the lacing-cord with it.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-- 1. In a fastener for lacing shoes, a tubular post around which the cord may be wound, and spring-arms formed independently of the post, and held within and projecting beyond the outer open end thereof, substantially as set forth. 2. As an improved article of manufacture, 5 the plate 1), formed with the integral tubular rivet c atone side and the integral tubular I Witnesses:

said tubular post and projecting at their free ends beyond the outer end thereof, substan- [O tially as set forth.

GEORGE M. SAWYER.

post e at its other side, and the spring clamp- CHAS. B. PATTERSON, ing-arms ff, secured at their inner ends within ULYSESS S. NORMAND. 

